"Many, many, many of Jane's friends"

By GLENN THRUSH

04/22/2009 04:35 PM EDT

One of the really fascinating parts of Nancy Pelosi's roundtable with reporters this morning was her extended, impassioned defense of her decision to deny longtime rival Jane Harman the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

It began when I asked Pelosi if Haim Saban -- the billionaire Israeli-American fundraiser mentioned in press accounts of the Harmon surveillance -- ever lobbied her on behalf of Harman in '05 when Harman was angling to be chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.

On Tuesday, Pelosi denied Saban ever strong-armed her in an attempt to get the pro-Iraq War Harman appointed to Intel.

"Haim Saban has been a friend of mine for many years... we talk about many issues one of my many disagreement with Haim was the issue of Iraq," said Pelosi, adding

"Many many many of Jane friends talked to me about her being named chair of the committee."

Then, aaying she wanted to make the record "clear," Pelosi described, in microscopic detail, why she denied Harman the coveted chairmanship in '06, opting to appoint Texas Democrat Silvestre Reyes, who had far less intelligence experience.

The speaker explained how appointing Harman to the post would have violated customary committee term limits and tick off other members who has been "leapfrogged" by Harman, who had already served her limit of two terms on the panel.

"When we took the majority the idea that Jane would have three terms was inconsistent with the commitment I had made and the customs that we had," she said.

"So the only reason Jane was not the chairman was because she already served two terms, had nothing to do with her position on Iraq, had nothing to do with donors, had nothing to do with eavesdropping… This idea -- 'Oh it was Iraq, Oh it was this, Oh it was that'—[that] we shouldered her out – no.. I've heard some people say to me, 'Oh, she was promised in writing she would be the chairman – completely not so.”